The U.S. Postal Service's decision to eliminate Saturday delivery could disproportionally hurt minority groups, according to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee.

"You're talking about just this reduction from six days to five days will cut anywhere from 25,000 to 30,000 employees. And with regard to Asian, African-Americans, and Hispanics, they comprise about 40 percent of the Postal Service employees," Cummings told Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC Friday night. "So it's logical to believe if they were to lose that 30,000 jobs, easily 40 percent of them would be African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans."

Cummings also pointed out that 40 percent of postal employees are female and warned that many are single mothers.

"So you have a lot of women, many of whom are single women  head of household, and they depend upon that decent wage, decent working conditions and benefits to take care of their families," he said. "So, yes, it would have a devastating effect in an economy that is already very, very fragile."

The U.S. Postal Service, which has been losing money for years due to decreased use, announced earlier this week that it would end normal Saturday delivery to save $2 billion in annual costs. Lawmakers have previously fought hard against such a change, and while there is resistance to the idea this time, the outcry hasn't been as loud.

The Senate passed a bill last year that would have forestalled the end of Saturday delivery for at least two years, but the bill stalled in the House.

Cummings admitted the service was struggling because more and more people were using the internet, and said "some downsizing" was necessary to match reality but that "there are all kinds of ways to achieve this without necessarily going through drastic measures."

"Basically, what the Congress needs to do is do a comprehensive bill whereby we have what we call an innovation officer, which is my idea. And that person would keep the Post Office as cutting edge of innovation and bringing in new ways to of making money," he said. "The other thing we`re going to have to do is we are going to have to do some downsizing. But when we downsize, we have to downsize with compassion. Keep in mind we have more than 100,000 people that are right now eligible to retire. And what we have to do now is make sure that they have a decent parachute to land. In other words, to give them some incentive money so they can go ahead and retire, and so that we can right-size the Post Office."

“Basically, what the Congress needs to do is do a comprehensive bill whereby we have what we call an innovation officer, which is my idea. And that person would keep the Post Office as cutting edge of innovation and bringing in new ways to of making money,” he said. “The other thing we`re going to have to do is we are going to have to do some downsizing. But when we downsize, we have to downsize with compassion. Keep in mind we have more than 100,000 people that are right now eligible to retire. And what we have to do now is make sure that they have a decent parachute to land. In other words, to give them some incentive money so they can go ahead and retire, and so that we can right-size the Post Office.”

Tell ya’ what . . . why not RAISE the postal rates so we can have Saturday mail delivery? Maybe to a dollar a stamp! Why not? Since the post office has been losing money these past years, that’s what they’ve done instead of cutting service.

And here we go with minority and female hardship crap. If my employer were to cut my hours of pay I would probably look for another job. But since this post office stuff is basically a free ride for a lot of dead beats, it’s better to complain.

Let me offer some insight on how things work out by 2030. Postal mail will decrease by half of what you get today. Coupons? Most will come to you via email. I would predict that we will discuss opening the post office for delivery for three days a week by 2030.

To: re_tail20
Prediction:
In the near future we will be hearing about the hardship this will place on minorities(large make up of USPS employees per reports)in regard to meeting their financial obligations such as mortgages,car payments etc.This will be stated as being due to overtime being slashed.
As most responcible people know an individual should not base there lifestyle and big ticket items on OT income levels only base pay.
This will become everyone elses problem IMOP

You were HIRED because you were minority....you will be dismissed because you're a wothless Union slug.

He's recommending Buyouts to an already-inflated Union Contract golden parachute, and, wants to enhance that even further (at Taxpayers' expense, of course).

Yet ANOTHER fiasco caused by over-staffing and Union-mandated over-compensation and Affirmative Action-mandated hired slugs....so let's get Taxpayers to bail 'em out, so those Union Dues to the DNC don't get adversely impacted.

Besides, we'll soon have 10's of millions of Illegals getting Amnesty, and we gotta get them Unionized, to get those Dues to the DNC maintained......

16
posted on 02/09/2013 7:36:04 AM PST
by traditional1
(Amerika.....Providing public housing for the Mulatto Messiah)

>>Basically, what the Congress needs to do is do a comprehensive bill whereby we have what we call an innovation officer,

This would be a diversity hire. Her primary job would really be to squash innovation because every improvement brings her one step closer to being unnecessary. She will need a staff of many diversity hires selected from applicants with “xxx Studies” degrees from the best schools to assist her in her goals of turning the USPS into the Pony Express minus the horse while she demands bigger budgets for “innovation research” each and every year.

I would predict that we will discuss opening the post office for delivery for three days a week by 2030.

Old news. Even last year there was serious discussion of alternating three day deliveries by neighborhood. Some people would get M-W-F delivery while others would get Tu-Th-S delivery.

Is there a single piece of first class mail that wouldn't be just as good the next day? If I need something delivered tomorrow, or even today, it goes electronically or by some express delivery, not first class. OK, you might get a birthday card a day late, but I get enough of those anyway with procrastinating relatives.

27
posted on 02/09/2013 8:21:34 AM PST
by KarlInOhio
(Choose one: the yellow and black flag of the Tea Party or the white flag of the Republican Party.)

I disagree. It is a “make pay” program...not a “make work” program. I “worked” for a year in the postal service when younger after leaving the USMC. I got 13 holidays, 13 sick days and 6 weeks of vacay per year. If I had no self-respect it would have been quite of a “career”.

Maybe if the post office would hire based on skills and merit instead of social engineering, it would not be going out of business. At Christmas when I had packages, I drove 9 miles each way to the post office in a certain colorless suburb. Walked right in, got served, walked out, and made it home in less time than it would have taken to stand in line for 45 minutes to an hour at the minority-staffed one 2 miles from home.

How’s that multiculturalism working for ya? Are less-able people being lifted up, gaining more education and culture, and making the most of greater opportunities? Or are less-able people dragging everything else down, slowing traffic, dumbing down services, speaking unitelligibly, lowering the tone of public manners, routinely engaging in petty crime and rule-breaking in the workplace, then crying discrimination?

Gee, how many "minorities" will be affected by the Defense cuts and proceeding layoffs? Won't a lot of those laid off be "minorities", or will all those laid off from Defense cuts be white males? So who cares about them, right?

Distraction and deflection. Typical Lefty tactic. Sequestration was zero's idea. Now, all of a sudden, he doesn't want it? Didn't think the Repubs would go through with it? Repubs and Right-leaning commentators need to mention that sequestration was zero's idea every chance they get - like every other sentence. Low-information voters have thick heads, tin ears, and mushy brains - it takes a lot to get through to them (and keep it simple!!).

41
posted on 02/09/2013 9:32:41 AM PST
by jeffc
(The U.S. media are our enemy)

Hey LL, you need to “dial up” Muawiyah” our resident FR minority rep for the USPS to tell us all why good old Elijah is right on the money! Surprised he’s not already posted a diatribe in support of keeping everyone over at the USPS on the dole!
Personally, if it weren’t for the Constitutional requirement for a Post Office, I’d favor shutting the whole thing down. But then what would we do with the 500,000 odd government “sponges” that would have to live on their generous government pensions? And just think how it would affect the auto industry not having to build all those funny jeep thingies they drive around in! What a dilemma!

“We need all the minorities and women to keep things running because all the white guys are goofy and incompetent. At least all of those on TV and in the government.”

Really; I don’t know why they don’t see this as an admission that running a business with a bunch of tokens is just impossible. Any company with a workforce of similar composition failed decades ago...

“How about the white people who were turned down for those jobs in the first place because of their race? Oh, nobody cares about them.”

That’s right, and as that affirmative action atmosphere (”hire x number of minorities and women or we’ll sue you”) spread throughout the private sector we’ve reached a point where any white man in a position is good at it. Any that weren’t were replaced with a token years ago.

The flip side of that is that as that any female or “preferred” minority is suspect until they prove themselves; until then they are useless window-dressing tokens.

“You were HIRED because you were minority....you will be dismissed because you’re a wothless Union slug.”

The lean economy has forced most companies in the private sector to cut loose the dead wood in the last few years; a lot of tokens that had deluded themselves that they had/contributed value received a slap of reality. Now in the tight job market they realize how useless they are. I’ve received resumes from some that include “African Student Union”, “Hispanic Student Association” and such in the forlorn hopes that anybody cares anymore.

“Obviously, the USPS has been operating as a government make-work program. No wonder its sinking, with all this dead wood on board.”

When Obama was first elected I stopped smoking (lasted a long time at it) to starve the beast of taxes; when he was re-elected I started online bill payments to do my part in reducing the fed workforce.

I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to see so many Obama voters kicked to the curb; to Hell with them.

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